School Psychologist vs. Social Worker

I was going to post about something that happened today, but then I remembered something that happened yesterday.

It's one thing to describe what it is that I do exactly in my school, it's another to describe how it's different from what another professional does when the duties tend to overlap. At work, someone asked me what was the difference between a school psychologist and a social worker. I was kind of thrown by that question because a lot of what we do in the building tends to overlap. Everyone knows that when a kid is having a rough time in class it's either me or the social worker that shows up. There are differences: The training is different, I had to go beyond my Master's to get a specialist's degree. Social workers tend to stop at the Master's of Social Work (MSW). My internship existed solely within schools. Social work students complete their internships in schools, hospitals, counseling centers, etc. My training deals more with cognition and behavior and I have more exposure to mental disorders. Social Workers focus more on social aspects of a child's life. They are more experienced in integrating family and school. My social worker is more aware of resources that exist in communities for families than I will ever be. I'm slowly becoming acquainted with the different resources that are available but her knowledge of what is out there is pretty extensive. We both meet with children and provide counseling, her counseling tends to focus more on social skills while my counseling may fall under more cognitive and academic tasks such as changing a child's self-perception, improving their organization skills, and making them more self-aware of their actions in the classroom. Of course, the social worker could work on these skills as well, just as I could work with a child on social skills-those things tend to overlap. Finally I added that I could give IQ tests and I was the only person in the building qualified to do so. That piqued everyone's interest.

Before I knew it I was peppered with requests from the teachers standing around to test their IQs. I told them that I wouldn't do it, and there was nothing they could do to convince me otherwise. I tried to explain how obsessive people can become when it comes to IQ. One teacher was willing to pay me, but I knew that it wasn't worth it. I remember being in my program and trying to find test subjects to practice administering IQ tests. Some people could handle it because they knew that they were just helping me out. Others took it too seriously, even though my methods were flawed back then, making some parts of the test invalid. I also tried to tell them that people can become obsessed with their "weaknesses" and the last thing I want are depressed teachers because they weren't as "smart" as they thought they were. After they kept whining and asking me why I wouldn't do it, one teacher chimed in saying "Jut look at how you're acting now and he hasn't even given you a test yet." That seemed to work for now.

I am thankful for having a knowledgeable social worker, it takes some of the pressure off me from having to know all of the answers. That's a good thing, since I find myself searching for those answers every day.


BBC